


Road Trip

by orphan_account



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-30
Updated: 2012-11-30
Packaged: 2017-11-19 21:52:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/578036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the 1950s Dean Winchester and his kid brother Sam work as local Private Eyes. A case comes across Dean's desk about the notorious Novak family ran by Papa Novak, or Charles "Chuck" Novak, The Prophet of the underworld and his sons. Picture contains the case file that Dean works up on the family including a few pictures of some of the brothers, Castiel "Babyface" Novak, Gabriel "Short Stuff" Novak, Balthazar "Ladies Man" Novak and the second oldest brother Lucifer "Morning Star" Novak. Really their dad must have been drunk when he thought up these names.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Road Trip

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the reverse bang and art by the lovely vivianetanner. Link to the art coming soon!

Sam looked at the blank page sitting in the typewriter and tried to think of how to even begin writing, tried to think of what words he could possibly use to write it all down. He didn’t even have the whole story, just his side. Just what he had seen. He still couldn’t bring himself to ask Dean about it, couldn’t bring himself to ask Dean to share something so precious. Sam set his fingers on the keys to try anyway.

_I’m not really sure how to start this. It’s not some fantastical story where the whole world feels the ramifications. In fact, for most of the people that knew what happened, it was simply business as usual. Even then, a lot of people still didn’t know what happened. I guess that’s why I want to write this. Even if it’s just this paper covered in ink, I want something to bear the marks of what happened._

_It all started on one of my brother’s road trips._

~

Dean would sometimes take off on a road trip in whatever car he had fixed up. Just pack up and leave for a few weeks, no route planned, no sightseeing plans, nothing. Just drove wherever. He said it was because he needed to be somewhere other than trapped in our office.

I don’t mind the office, but then again, I was always better suited to desk work than Dean. Dean would have been happy just traveling across the country, living out of his car.

It was on one of these trips that he met Castiel. No last names. Well, they didn’t give each other their last names.

I don’t know what happened on that trip, and given my brother’s history I’m not sure I want too many details. Dean was always very discreet about his little sexual endeavors, especially considering the rather negative reactions people had to two men. As much as I liked to tease, I know Dean is smart and I know he has a sense of self-preservation.

I know they became very close on that trip. I found out later Dean had met Castiel somewhere in Philadelphia and they traveled together for a while. I know that the way they became close wasn’t just physically, even if Dean never admitted it. I don’t know anything else, though. I don’t know how Castiel had managed to gain Dean’s trust like he did. Dean didn’t trust anyone, but Castiel…

There was something about Castiel that drew Dean in, and I had never seen Dean so ensnared by someone before.

This trip lasted longer than the others, and Dean came back both elated and melancholic in a way only he could manage. I barely even managed to get a name out of him. I know he was thrilled to have met Castiel and to have had that time with him. I know it like I also know that for the first time in his life he found himself missing someone who wasn’t family. It wasn’t anything obvious, but I know him better than anyone.

Well, Castiel knew him pretty well.

Later I found out that they had made some stupid promise not to look for each other. Dean gave all sorts of excuses, but I knew what he was really afraid of. I knew how Dean hoped that as long as Castiel only existed in his memories, he would never be hurt by him. Castiel, I later found out, was ashamed of his family business. They both regretted the time they lost because of this stupid promise.

They did meet again, although not in the way either of them hoped.

~

The next time Dean saw Castiel, it was a picture in a file on the Novak Clan, handed to them by their pretty redheaded client, Anna. I’ve never seen Dean so pale. He silently set the file on the desk and walked out muttering about needing some air. I flipped open the file and looked at the names written neatly on a small piece of paper.

Chuck “The Prophet” Novak

Lucifer “Morning Star” Novak

Michael “Mikie” Novak

Gabriel “Short Stuff” Novak

Balthazar “Ladies Man” Novak

Castiel “Babyface” Novak

and Zac Novak

I’d have to copy them onto another piece of paper so we could add our own notes, but at least we had names. Of the higher ups no doubt.

I tried to distract Anna from Dean’s odd behavior by asking more about the case. She filled me in that she was only there on behalf of a friend who needed her to find some investigators, and I asked if we’d be able to meet him. She assured me that when he could safely get away he would meet us with more information. I could tell she wasn’t distracted, though. She was obviously smart, her eyes too sharp to convince me of the simple friend turned messenger she was portraying.

She made a payment for us to start investigating and said our mystery employer would continue paying after he’d met with us.

I couldn’t tell what Dean was thinking when he came back, but he nodded when he saw the money and we started investigating.

~

Wasn’t more than a few days before we caught wind of a fight between Lucifer and Michael at a local pub. The family had been meeting for drinks at a pub when the two brothers leaped at each other. Papa Novak led them out while the other brothers managed to slip out.

Five days later Dean was tenser than usual, and when I read his notes it made sense. Gabriel had apparently tried to step in during the second fight between his two older brothers, and Balthazar had been seen driving him back to the family estate. Castiel was with them. I guess it must have been different to see Castiel with the Novaks with his own eyes instead of just a picture with the name Novak next to it.

There was a lull in activity over the next few days, which Dean took as an opportunity to find out more about the individual Novaks. I usually let Dean handle this part since he’s better at getting a feel for people than I am.

The section about Castiel wasn’t much longer than the others. I found myself wondering how much of it was information Dean knew from the trip and why Dean wasn’t using any of the information he’d learned about Cas from then. Unless Dean thought it was irrelevant.

A few days later there was a rumor floating around that Papa Novak disappeared and only left instructions for Castiel to be protected. I couldn’t tell if Dean was relieved about the protection or terrified about the implication that Castiel was the new boss. I found myself wondering not for the last time what happened on that trip to get Dean to care so much, even though he was desperately trying to hide it.

Dean was climbing the walls, and I knew his interest in the case had never been purely professional, but he was doing an even poorer job of hiding it now. When we got the call from Anna to meet our mystery employer at St. Michael’s church Dean was all ready to go, all caution aside. I tried to talk some sense into him, tried to get him to check it out first before we went to a meeting alone to meet some mystery man but he wouldn’t listen. I managed to make some bare bones precautions, but we were lucky our employer didn’t mean us harm.

~

Dean was impatient when we got there, and antsy. Everything about this case had him on edge.

I don’t think either of us were quite ready to find out that Castiel was our employer. Dean’s jaw clicked shut audibly and he stood stock still, staring at Castiel with his eyes wide.

“Hello, Dean.”

Two words. Two words in that raspy voice had Dean immediately snapping out of his trance, grabbing Castiel’s arm and dragging him away from me and to the other side of the cathedral. Dean shot me a look that clearly meant for me to stay where I was, so I did. I couldn’t hear a word they said, only saw how they acted around each other, saw how Dean didn’t loosen his grip on Castiel’s arm like he thought he would try to escape. Dean’s face, I have never seen it that mix of anger and pain before, and despite Castiel being a tough guy to get a read on, even I could see he looked unfathomably sad. Something Castiel said made Dean look away and try to compose himself. Dean has never been so affected by another person before, and I didn’t understand what it was about Castiel that made my brother like this.

Dean eventually let go of Castiel’s arm, slowly, and then stalked back over to me. Evidently we’d been hired to discover who in the Novak family was helping the rival family Hellfire. Dean wasn’t looking directly at me, but he wasn’t protesting either, so I saw no reason not to continue. After a fleeting—longing—look at Dean, Castiel murmured something about needing to get back and said he’d be in touch.

After he left, Dean walked away without a word.

~

We had been looking over our case files to see if we had any suspects when Castiel came. He apologized for the delay, and I would continue to be surprised over his courteousness for a while, although Dean seemed used to it. Then again, it could just be that Dean seemed to be trying his hardest to pretend Castiel wasn’t there.

I took over the questioning and realized Castiel was remarkably pleasant to talk to, even if he was extremely formal. He was observant, and smart, and had a lot of information on his brothers. He refused to say anything about Gabriel and Balthazar, though. He only said he knew they had nothing to do with this and wouldn’t say any more about them.

I wrote down all of the information he gave and once he had nothing more to say, sat awkwardly for a minute before grabbing his coat and leaving. Dean looked at him as he was leaving, obviously trying to keep his look brief. Not that it mattered. Castiel’s back was to him. It looked like Dean would say something, but he didn’t.

Their next few meetings continued like this, with Dean pretending to do paperwork and spending the least amount of time possible with Castiel and Castiel pretending it didn’t affect him. Even I could see he was hurt by Dean avoiding him.

We found out more about the Novaks, how Michael was looking for their father and how Lucifer and Zac were running rampant. He was looking more and more tired every day, and I tried to imagine what that must be like, to grow up the child of a mobster and have family and business as closely intertwined as this.

On impulse, I lent him one a book, just some idiotic romance novel I had lying around. Dean and I would read random books when we were bored, and I remember it being relaxing. Castiel looked at me with the most confused expression and thanked me.

~

Castiel seemed to hang around more after that, an uneasy truce with Dean formed when I invited him to stay and Dean didn’t object. He finished the novel I lent him soon enough and moved on to another one. He read books quickly, seemed to devour them, but he seemed to like the trashy romance novels the best. He said it was because they were so ridiculous they amused him.

Dean snorted at that and Castiel smiled.

~

I left them alone once, just went to get some coffee, and came back to find Castiel napping on the couch and Dean staring at him with the softest expression on his face. I almost stayed to watch that rare expression on Dean’s face, but I knew they both needed this.

They may have to be careful to hide their feelings outside, but I could at least give them privacy in here.

~

I got some idea of what they must have been like together during that trip when Cas told us that Gabriel and Balthazar both left, unwilling to be a part of the family business anymore. Dean wrapped an arm around Cas’s shoulders and pressed a kiss to his temple, the show of affection coming naturally to Dean. I stayed quiet and tried to be as unobtrusive a presence as possible even though I was sitting right in front of them.

I found out later from Dean that Gabriel, Balthazar, and Castiel were close. It was one of the few things he shared with me about Castiel.

That Cass was actually Dean’s nickname for him and not his family’s I found out from Castiel. He smiled fondly at the notes Dean had taken on them and told me his family was too formal to call him Cass. Everyone else was too afraid of offending him by being overly familiar and shortening his name, and Gabriel and Balthazar liked to tease him so they called him Cassie instead.

~

Their little bubble of happiness didn’t last long, though. We eventually traced money being funneled from the Novaks’s fund to Hellfire’s fund. Cass took one look at the information and we could tell he knew who was giving away the Novaks’s information to Hellfire, and who was funding them. He didn’t tell us, just turned and planted one on Dean. I looked away, definitely feeling like I was intruding on a private moment. I saw Dean flail for a minute out of the corner of my eye before he seemed to recover.

A hand on my shoulder alerted me that they were done, and Castiel thanked me before leaving. Dean was in a daze and I was still slightly confused.

A few hours later Dean realized that Castiel was planning to confront them and rushed to try and stop him, but it was too late. Lucifer, Zac, and Castiel were already gone.

~

Dean searched frantically until he found out where they were keeping Castiel. He searched for weeks with no sign, driving himself ragged looking for any sign that Castiel was still even _alive_. He knew Hellfire had taken him, he just needed to figure out where.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him what I suspected even though I knew the thought had probably already crossed his mind. Castiel had never given any indication that he would become the new boss, but the clear show of favoritism from Papa Novak must still have been quite the wound to the ego for people as prideful as Zac and Lucifer. Zac never had any hope of becoming Chuck Novak’s successor, but petty jealousy was a treacherous thing. And Lucifer. From what Castiel had told them Lucifer was dangerous when he thought he had competition.

Dean kept looking anyway, but even after he found him, he knew he couldn’t break into a Hellfire facility without getting himself killed. Instead he did the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen him do.

He walked right up to Michael Novak and offered him information in exchange for us being allowed to go on the break in to Hellfire. Michael assessed him for a minute, his blue eyes so much colder than Castiel’s before agreeing.

Dean showed him what Castiel had figured out. Lucifer was using his information to help Hellfire in exchange for a higher position. He had Zac’s help as the book keeper to transfer funds secretly to Hellfire.

Dean and I went with Michael when he ordered the execution of Hellfire members now that he knew who the traitors were. Dean barely paid any attention to the Hellfire members. He left that to the Novaks. Instead he tore the place apart looking for Castiel.

I have never hated being right so much in my life.

We burst into a room and found Castiel tied to a chair, legs bent at unnatural angles, blood and bruises everywhere. His breathing was shallow, so shallow and he was so sickly pale.

Dean dropped down and immediately worked at the knots still tying him to the chair. I was right behind him. Once Cass was free I went to the doorway to make sure they had some privacy. Dean hadn’t accepted it yet, but I knew Cass wasn’t going to last much longer. I heard Dean begging him to wake up, and Cass’s voice was so very weak when he responded, barely audible. Dean tried to say something encouraging, but it was useless and we all knew it.

I knew when the realization sunk in for Dean when the hitching sobs started, and Cass was murmuring something that had Dean give a wet sounding laugh. He was begging Cass now to stay awake, to just stay awake a little longer and it was painful just to listen. I tried to tune them out, but it only partially worked. I heard Dean murmur an “I promise” and didn’t listen further, wanting to give Dean at least this to keep for himself.

I knew the minute Cass died. Dean made a sound almost inhuman filled with an impossible amount of grief.

I don’t know how long we were there. I know eventually Michael found us. He was covered in blood, and I had a pretty good idea whose it was. He looked past me over at Dean and Cass. At the sight of his brother’s dead body I saw something flicker out, and suddenly he didn’t look like the enforcer of a mob family. He looked like a lost little boy. Two of his brothers had left and his father was gone, and in one night he had lost three more brothers. In less than a few months he had lost his family. He merely nodded at me and walked away, obviously too tired to do any more fighting, especially with people he had no reason to fight.

~

Dean had been fiddling with a bloodstained carnival token since that night. It didn’t take too much guessing to figure out who had given it to him. It was probably from one of the stops on their trip. When Dean wasn’t pretending to be fine, he was staring at the token. I knew he wanted to leave, leave here forever. I knew he wouldn’t though, because he’d stay to take care of me.

I wondered what would have happened if Dean hadn’t had to come back. Or if Cas hadn’t either. Would they just have kept driving? Would they be together now?

One thing I did know is that Dean couldn’t stand being in this city anymore. He couldn’t stand being so close to where Cass died.

So I decided to take care of him for once.

I put my hands on his shoulders and said “Go. I can take care of myself.” He took off, sent me letters once in a while.

Later, in a letter from God knows where, Dean told me he and Cass had made plans that if they ever met again, they’d take off on a road trip, and he marked out on a map the route they had planned to take.

I didn’t get any more letters.


End file.
